Two developers have offered to split their portions of potential Sales Tax Anticipated Revenue (STAR) bonds with the Washoe County School District, which is in the midst of major school rehabilitation projects this summer.

At Tuesday’s Washoe County School District Board of Trustees meeting, developer Jerry Katzoff brought the proposal to the board, which would first require the city of Reno to grant the STAR bond financing. Katzoff, whose family owns the Reno Aces, has asked Reno for the ability to use STAR bonds in constructing a major restaurant and entertainment district around the Aces Stadium in downtown Reno.

The Katzoff/Simon Group and its partner developers want to clean up blighted areas around the new Triple A baseball stadium, which is the anchor for the future entertainment district. Katzoff said the partners had projected $800,000 in business in the Aces’ first year and the total is already at $550,000 just in the first 30 of about 130 games.

“Baseball and students and schools is a go-together thing,” Katzoff said. “We’ve been to every school and want to make sure schools like us and want to do this. We’re wide open to do anything to make this a community thing.”

In a presentation to the trustees on Tuesday, Tom Ciesynski, chief accountant for the school district, recommended that the board accept the offer.

“They’re pledging to have (revenues) go back toward capital revitalization and they recognize they’re bringing in new business and we have needs on the revitalization side of the house,” Ciesynski said.

STAR bonds, a product of the 2005 state legislative session designed help cities attract new businesses and tourists into the region, allow developers to keep 75 percent of revenues from sales tax generated by their projects, with the other 25 percent going to cities and other entities.

The school district already receives some portion of the other 25 percent of the bond revenues that go to city coffers, but Katzoff/Simon and partner developer Tessera both are willing to offer a third of the 75 percent they would receive. Specifically, the school’s share of the developer’s STAR bond revenues would go toward capital projects as opposed to operating funds, where the revenue normally would be directed.

According to an analysis conducted by Meridian Business Advisors, Ciesynski said, the development around the stadium — consisting of a music hall, health club, night clubs, retail, residential buildings and several hotels — would generate a total of about $129 million, equating to roughly $43 million for the school district.

“I think it would benefit the school district in the long run because if we’re able to complete (this deal), and hopefully we can get through the legal process, if the numbers are correct, through our analysis, to get $43 million for projects to revitalize our schools is a great thing,” Ciesynski said. “We have over $1.3 billion of revitalization and building needs right now and we don’t have enough funding to that right now. It doesn’t solve all our problems, but it certainly goes a long way quite a bit.”

The board unanimously approved the agreement. The issue also came before the Washoe County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, which also gave its approval with certain stipulations. Commissioner Kitty Jung advocated for the school district to be a beneficiary of some of the revenues.

Reno’s redevelopers and then the Reno City Council, the entity that will approve or deny approval of the bonds, will decide the issue on July 1. If the proposal passes through the council, then it will go to the governor for final approval.

The STAR bonds could last up to 20 years, depending on the debt and how quickly it could be paid off, Ciesynski said.